Leandro Gómez Guerrero

 

On January 6, the auction was held among all those who donated.

The biggest donation was from a Uruguayan woman, who lives abroad, who preferred to remain anonymous. We share her message to receive the result: "We learned about the Salvator Mundi counter-auction reinterpreted in" Il Povero " by the media and we felt moved by the story behind the painting, a story with a deep human and solidarity sense. It is a creative provocation to the world in which we live, the values ​​of humanity and  the money with meaning" said the Uruguayan abroad.

We thank all those who have collaborated with this artistic solidarity project of the plastic artist Leandro Gómez Guerrero.

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Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” painting was auctioned in Chirstie’s for a record $450.3 million.

This event inspires an artist to organize a “counter-auction”, in order to reflect on the real meaning of the Leonardo’s painting, where Jesus Christ is presented as the savior of the world.

To accomplish this, he create  a version of the painting named “Il Povero Salvator Mundi” (The Poor Savior of the World), that has been auctioned in a donations format: the one who donate more, would be the owner of the painting.

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The artist Leandro Gómez Guerrero create this version to draw attention on the true meaning of the Jesus Christ message, who came to live among us to save the world with solidarity, helping the poorest and questioning personal wealth, the own benefit and profit.

From the pictorial form he sought to transmit the austerity and simplicity of Jesus using the technique of charcoal and pastel chalk, typical of the sketches and previous studies in the Renaissance period.

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"It is incredible that the result of the auction ends up giving an absolutely inverse message to that of the theme of the auctioned work," says Gómez. "This motivated me to create this counter-auction where art is not a means to promote profit, but an invitation to all of us to collaborate with our contribution to improve the harsh reality of the people most in need. The word "Povero" in Italian means "poor" but the word also contains "vero" which means "true", in allusion to the deepest meaning of "Salvator Mundi" ", says Gómez.

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The recipient of the donations was Obra Padre Cacho, initiated by this priest who went to live among the poor and today is to be recognized as the first Saint of Uruguay. "Here the value is the purpose, not the work itself," explained Gómez.

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